Posted By:
Frank WakefieldMark, please mail me a gold star...
John Titus ended his career in Kansas City. He was a ballplayer.
Thank you for putting that photo up!!
As for my first comment... it's all in their appearance.
Young guy wearing a sweater in the presence of 2 old guys, he doesn't want to seem a wimp, he has to be a pitcher.
2 old guys, one young. Now why would 2 old guys want to be photographed with a young guy unless he was going up. Roy Sanders has 2 seasons at KC, he was 9-10 in 1915, then in 1916 he's 20-18 and hit .317. Sanders goes up to Cincinnati in 1917, and plays for Pittsburgh in 1918.
Old guys, look at their eyes, their wrinkles. These two have seen a lot of ball. Look at Titus' belt, and his second chin. The guy on the outside has to be the oldest. Kansas City was an American Association AA club, just under the majors. An old guy on such a team wasn't likely to go back up... either stay where he was or go down.
So elementary, Watson/Marlowe...
One of my favorite ballplayers was on that 1915 Kansas City team, Jack Lelivelt. His T222 Fatima card would be about #3 on my realistic want list... I interviewed George Archie several years ago, he spoke well of Mr. Lelivelt, said he was the most knowledgeable baseball man he'd known. And Mr. Archie had played on about a dozen different teams, he'd been up with 3 major league teams.